Small mystery from 1883. What does this name say and who was Percy Cooke?

[BatsVSBelfrys]

I've picked up an antique jewellery box on my travels - it's very battered and has seen better days but that's all part of the charm I suppose!

Anyway, it has a brass plaque screwed into it. I 'think' it says A D Gough but I'm unsure of the U in Gough. Can you make it out?

Also it was made by Percy Cooke 194 Regent street. (Doesn't add London but I'm assuming this?)

Google doesn't throw up anything - can anyone assist?

Thanks!

Agnes French was alive in the 1939 census and appears to be born on 10th June 1866.

Hmm the mystery continues. If it is her then the box isn't a 16th birthday present. Maybe a congratulations for some achievement? Or we're stalking the wrong Agnes.

As the box is lined with velvet, perhaps it is for jewellery.
Appreciative that a lot of time has passed, possibly where you purchased it might give a clue - near Rugby or St Albans?
Arthur Cecil Gough was baptised on the 12th of August 1867. His date of birth is not given, nor can I find it as he died in Rugby before the 1939 Register was taken and I can find no civil record of his birth.
Agnes and Walter French worked on farms and died in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Yeah, I'm wondering if it could be a gentleman's jewellery box. That hole might be for a fob watch.

Shameless placemarking.

Sadly no clues from where I bought it. I bought it online in an auction for 4 quid. I collect Victorian/ Georgian antiques, mainly miniatures but also letters, jewellery and jewellery boxes. Anything with the smaller identifier on it always gets me excited!

Interestingly, the births of Arthur C. Gough and Agnes C. Gough were both registered in the same part of the index in 1866. Him in Ledbury, her in Barnet. They are the only people with "A. C. Gough" names I can find in England & Wales.

Can’t help with your box OP but just wanted to say it has been the loveliest thread I’ve read for a while.Cant wait for the next. I’m

1am, solve a mystery or die tryin, I love it.

It looked oks like A N Gough to me.

@caringcarer, here’s the old English font.

I have two similar boxes (inherited from great granny, born in the 1870s). These which were definitely jewel boxes and have always been used as such.
The round thing in the centre of the top tray I assumed was support for a bracelet and maybe to pop a brooch into the round. Along the front of the tray is a very narrow slot to push rings into. I can't see if yours is the same.
It's def AC Gough BTW.

I'm far too invested in this now!

Arthur Cecil Gough’s academic record stating his year of birth further complicates the issue!

The above ties in with @HollyKnight’s finding that his birth was registered Q3 1866 in Ledbury, mother’s maiden name Cave. Yet he was baptised 12th of August 1867 in Leamington Spa where the parents’ names match. Considering their belief and implied financial circumstances - Arthur attended Merchant Taylor’s School in London - unless a child was in very poor health, the delay seems odd.
Back to Agnes?

What's the diameter of the indentation, OP? is it bracelet sized, which would indicate a jewel box and therefore a woman?

unless a child was in very poor health, the delay seems odd

DGF was one of twins (the other didn't survive). DB has the parish magazine with DGF's baptism a couple of days after his birth and it says something like 'due to ill health' - not sure if that's his or his mother's. So poor health would indicate immediate baptism, not a delay.

Waiting for a godparent to be in the country, perhaps?

The engraving of the name and of the date seem to be in very different styles. Does that imply something?

Oooh, interesting. The date does look a bit amateurish compared to the initials. Perhaps someone bought it as a gift, had the initials done and added the date later?

That’s just what I meant @MrsDanversGlidesAgain.

Some parents didn’t bother/couldn’t afford to have their children baptised but, if the child seemed close to death, a baptism took place.

It's fascinating, isn't it? there could be all sorts of reasons - family dynamics, money, let's wait until we move/his namesake comes back from India to get little Arthur baptised....

Why does it have to be a birthday present? People of that class bought portable writing boxes like we buy school notebooks and pens for our children - for practical school purposes.

It was likely bought as a school supply for him to use at boarding school for sixth form and then keep for when he went to Oxford. The velvet lining was normal for men and women.

He started at Oxford in Oct 1885, so June 1883 would be lower sixth:

Gough, Arthur Cecil, 5s. Howard England Tunnycliffe, of 'Malmen,' co. Hereford, cler. Wadham Coll., matric. 19 Oct., 1885, aged 19.

Because putting a date on something suggests that date has some personal significance.

Thank you for starting this thread @BatsVSBelfrys. I’m enjoying it so much.

Sorry link
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Alumni_Oxonienses:_the_Members_of_the_University_of_Oxford,_1715-1886/Gough,_Arthur_Cecil

the family is in the peerage, no idea why

https://www.thepeerage.com/p32959.htm#i329582